


It's a Rescue Fic, Kaikaina Grif!

by Hinn_Raven



Category: Red vs. Blue
Genre: Captivity, Donut is a BAMF, Gen, Implied Relationships, Kai is a BAMF, Post-Season/Series 15, Rescue Missions, Reverse Big Bang Challenge, RvB Reverse Big Bang, Serious Injuries
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-22
Updated: 2017-11-22
Packaged: 2019-02-05 12:00:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,034
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12794109
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hinn_Raven/pseuds/Hinn_Raven
Summary: Kai and Donut undertake a rescue mission to save their friends. People always underestimate the two of them, so they're in for a surprise.





	It's a Rescue Fic, Kaikaina Grif!

**Author's Note:**

> More Reverse Big Bang Fic? Heck yeah! 
> 
> This one's for the amazing [ivorytrenchcoat](https://ivorytrenchcoat.tumblr.com/), who drew [this](https://ivorytrenchcoat.tumblr.com/post/167772932478/i-was-amazingly-lucky-enough-to-work-with/) amazing art for me to write around. It was super exciting to write some more Kai and Donut!
> 
> Also shout out to eclaire-de-lune for betaing this for me!

Of all the dumb shit Dex and his friends have pulled on Kai, getting captured is probably at the top of the list. And she’s _counting_ the time that Caboose set the base on fire, and then Sarge set the fire extinguisher on fire.

“Honestly, there are so many better ways for them to get chained up!” Donut says at her elbow. Despite the light-hearted tone, he’s as worried as she is, and she sees him tossing the grenade back and forth between his hands.

Kai nods in agreement absently, craning her neck to try to see around the corner.

She guesses it kind of makes sense that the place where her friends are imprisoned is a creepy abandoned base, but that doesn’t mean she has to _like_ it. She and Donut already took out two guards outside and hid them in the bushes. They’re not sure how many more there are in the base, but they need to be careful. Whoever did this has a lot of guns, and they’re _dangerous_.

“Lopez’s radio signal said he was coming through here!” Donut says, looking at the instructions he’d written on his armor in sharpie.

“Yep.” Kai nods again. Donut had translated it wrong the first time, but after she’d helped him with some verb conjugation and shit they’d figured out where their family was being held.

She isn’t entirely sure _who_ it is that did the kidnapping this time; Lopez didn’t specify, and Kai had been busy at the convention while Donut had been on a spa weekend.

They’d come home on the same ship; ship-pooling is the new rage these days, and besides, Donut’s good company. He’s good at helping Kai coordinate her colors, and he doesn’t yell when she tells stories about having sex. And he doesn’t want to _have_ sex with her, which is sometimes a relief, because then she can just have fun and not need to decide if she wants to bone him back or not.

And then they’d walked into a nightmare.

It couldn’t have been long between the guys getting taken and them getting back to the moon; Donut had only been away three days, and the signs all looked recent. And then, halfway through their exploration, they’d received Lopez’s SOS.

There’s been no sign of Wash and Carolina either, so Kai guesses it’s up to them to fucking save the guys. Which is dumb, because what’s the point in everybody taking levels in badass if they still need to be rescued? Honestly.

She hopes that Wash and Carolina are okay; they’re supposed to be at this weird physical group therapy thing that Doctor Grey’s been trying to get them to go to for _months now_ , something about trying to help the spasms that they both get in the legs sometimes. The goddamn Murder Fridge is coming back to haunt them again; and the two Freelancers aren’t answering their phones for some reason. So Kai had settled for leaving them a very colorful message telling them exactly what she thinks about Freelancers who don’t pick up when she calls, and then grabbed Donut and the two of them had gotten right back in the ship and gone right for the place where Lopez had told them where to go.

She refuses to think that the bad guys might have gotten to them too. She can’t handle that kind of thinking. Right now, she needs to focus on what’s ahead. Getting to their friends and saving them from... whatever this all is.

 _Prisa. Prisa._ Lopez had said. There had been a sense of urgency in his voice, one that was unusual for the robot.

 _Hurry_. _Hurry_.

“We’re getting close,” she says, as they turn another corner, into yet another corridor. She freezes as she realizes that there are guards outside of the door, right where Lopez had directed them to. This must be it! They’re so close Kai can almost taste it.  

She and Donut look at each other, and nod. Donut takes out his pistols, while Kai pulls out her rifle. It’s noisy, sure, but she prefers bigger weapons nonetheless.

She pauses, going over that line in her head, and makes a note to tell that joke around Tucker later, when everyone is all right and safe, and preferably where Dex can hear, so he’ll yell at her while Tucker can high-five her.

Of course, to be able to do that, they need everyone to still be alive first.

She and Donut throw themselves around the corner. The guards are in that fucking _tacky_ Bungie armor; all bright blue and shit. She slams the butt of her rifle against one of their helmets; the gun itself is too loud to risk going off, not when they don’t know where the other guards are. Donut lets out a warning noise, letting her know that he’s dropping a flash bang. She closes her eyes and pivots, hitting the second guard right in the visor. There. They’re both down.

“Nice throw,” she says, kicking her guard’s rifle away. It clatters against the wall, and Kai winces, realizing she probably should have unloaded it first or something.

“Double Oh Donut _always_ gets his man,” he says, divesting his guard of his weapons.

They find a closet, partway down the hall to stash the guards in. Kai carefully rips the radios out of their helmets and makes sure that the door is jammed shut. There. That part is taken care of at least; that’s two less people they’ll risk running into when it’s time to leave.

“You think this is the right place?” Donut asks as they get to the door that the men had been guarding. There’s a lock on the door, with a keypad and a card swiping-thing.

“What else would it be?” Kai scoffs, as if she’s not doubting it herself. She has no idea what they’re going to find on the other side of the door. It could be a trap, it could just be Lopez, it could be--

Well. It could be a lot of things. Most of them really unpleasant.

Kai tugs on the door handle, but it’s locked. She tries one of the keycards they’d grabbed off the guards, but apparently those don’t work without the code. Scowling, she turns to Donut and props her hands on her hips.”Can you take care of this?” The fact that it’s locked makes her feel slightly better about the others being behind the door. What else would they lock up so effectively?

“Sure, I’ll blow it for you!” Donut’s voice is light and cheery, but Kai knows better. He’s just as worried about what they’re going to find on the other side of that door as she is.

The scene back on the moon hadn’t been pretty. There had been blood, and bullets in the walls, and...

She pushes aside those thoughts. Lopez hadn’t mentioned anyone being hurt too badly, but... Pulling herself back to the present, Kai refocuses on Donut setting explosives on the door, and checks the hallway for signs of oncoming enemies.

Kai is _angry_ , her hands practically shaking as she checks her gun again. They’re supposed to be _retired_ , they’re supposed to be _safe._ Kai’s been relocating her business to the moon, spending time with Dex and the guys. She’s been settling in, learning all the new quirks, all the new ways that they’re fucked up, all the new faces. Washington, who’s not a cop anymore, Carolina who is super hot and sucks at singing, Locus who lurks in corners and they all pretend doesn’t come to visit. Dex has new nightmares, Tucker has new scars. Church is gone now, and Tex is too, and Kai’s _almost_ stopped looking over her shoulder for them whenever she walks into a room.

Wash can almost talk normally again, and Carolina can stand still for more than five minutes with only minor fidgeting. Dex hasn’t brought out the volleyballs in a whole week, and Tucker is smiling again.

And these people came into their home and _hurt them_. Things are going to be hard again, just like those first few weeks, and Kai _hates_ it, hates that they’re being dragged into this again, whatever it is. They were supposed to be _done_. They’re supposed to be _safe_. The bad guys are dead or in prison. What could anyone possibly want with them at this point?

“Step back!” Donut says. Kai does so, ducking behind the wall alongside him.

“Woo!” Kai grins. “This is gonna blow harder than the one time I went to the football and cheerleader orgy!”

“Wait, what?”

The explosion shakes the building. Donut apparently hadn’t exaggerated when he’d been bragging about his skills at blowing things. But it does have one downside; if the bad guys hadn’t known they were here, they certainly know now.

In the distance, alarms start to blare, and she knows they don’t have too much time. They need to get moving, need to get the others out of there _now_.

Kai rushes forward, with Donut behind her as they move into the cell. “You’re okay!” she says, as she counts.

Dex, Simmons, Sarge, Tucker, Caboose, Doc. Lopez’s head lies in Doc’s lap. They’re not chained up, but they don’t really need to be, not in the shape they’re in. Caboose is slumped against Tucker’s side, half his face covered in blood. Sarge is on the floor, and Dex is hovering, trying to stem the bleeding. Simmons is slumped against the wall in pain, his mechanical arm ripped clean off and still sparking. Kai had found the missing limb back at base. Doc’s got blood all over his armor, and none of them look good. Their weapons are gone, even Tucker’s sword, but they’re mostly still in armor. Their helmets are nowhere to be seen, which Kai knows will be a worry for _later_.

Everybody’s accounted for. She wonders what the bad guys had been thinking, shoving them all into one room and just locking the doors in this state. What if they’d _died_? Sarge looks like he’s pretty close; he looks even older like this, especially without his helmet.

Kai rushes to check on them, moving to Sarge first. The old guy is out as hell, but his chest is still rising and falling with loud, shallow breaths, so at least he’s not _dead_. Dex’s hands are on the wound, and he looks grim as she’s ever seen him.

“Kai?” Dex croaks. His voice sounds _awful_ , and she thinks there are tears in his eyes. They _all_ look awful, but there’s something worse about Dex looking like that. He’s not _supposed_ to look like that. He’s her _big brother_ , it’s wrong to see him so...

Like this.

“I can’t leave you guys alone for five minutes, can I?” Kai tries to make her voice light, but she’s not sure how well she succeeds. What can they do? How are they going to get them out of here? None of them look in great shape; Dex is probably in the best shape, but she has no idea how much of the blood is even his.  They can’t walk them out of here.

Donut is checking on Doc, frowning as he pokes at the injury. The tilt of his helmet tells Kai that he’s thinking the exact same thing she is. They’re in bad shape. Kai had hoped they’d be able to just take the guys and run for the warthog they’d stashed not too far from base, but it’s looking less and less likely.

Tucker finally seems to notice they’re here. His eyes are glazed with pain, and when he speaks, it’s in short gasps. Caboose is stirring, muttering things too quietly for Kai to hear as she moves closer to check on both of them.

“Thank god,” Tucker groans. There’s a nasty looking cut on his face, and now that she’s closer, she thinks his leg might be broken. It’s sticking out at an odd angle at least. Caboose is curled up against his side, and Tucker’s arm is around his shoulders, keeping Caboose close. “Where’s Wash? Where’s Carolina?”

Kai swallows as she tries to examine Caboose’s face. It’s a mess of blood. She thinks someone broke his helmet against his face. Caboose won’t be happy about that, she thinks distantly, as she checks him over. He loves that helmet, and it’s a pain to get them in that model these days. There’s no sign of Freckles either, which isn’t good. Kai could really use a helping hand right now. “Couldn’t find them. It’s just us.”

“Great,” Simmons groans, not opening his eyes. She tries not to be mad at him because it looks like his missing arm _really hurts_ , but still! “We’re screwed. Still.”

“Hey!” Kai snaps, pointing at him. “You shut your mouth! Just cuz Dex likes it doesn’t mean I don’t!”

“ _Kai_!” Dex protests. Yeah, okay, he’s probably mostly fine. There’s blood on his face, but it’s dried. She thinks he touched it with his hands, which are coated in blood. It’s not a good look on him. It’s not a good look on _any_ of them.

“No offense, Kai,” Doc says. At least he sounds like _him,_ not the douchebag from Blood Gulch. If that guy showed up, Kai would have some _words_ , because he’s _a dick,_ and they don’t really need that kind of bullshit. “But we really could use some Freelancers right now.”

Kai wants to scream. “Well, you’re stuck with _us_ ,” she snaps. “I don’t know where they _are_!” She wants to be offended, the implication that they’re not enough, not good enough for a rescue. _Dex_ had rescued them last time with only the help of an awkward bug man! She tries to swallow down her frustration, her rage.

“You shouldn’t have come,” Dex mutters, eyes flickering between her, Sarge, and Simmons. He’s worried, she knows, for all of them, but that doesn’t make her feel much better.“Now they’ll get you too.”

Kai’s hand clenches into a fist as she checks Tucker’s leg. He hisses in pain as she touches it; probably broken. Caboose’s ribs aren’t in great shape either. His eyelashes flutter as she touches them, muttering something softly about Church and not wanting to have to go to school.

“Who are these guys?” she asks, instead of yelling at them. Dex for still treating her like a kid, the others for not _getting it_ , that she and Donut can _handle this_. Kai’s been a goddamn soldier for _years_ now, and so has Donut. They can _do this_. She’s not some dumb, sex-crazed eighteen year old like they all seem to think, and Donut’s not just some airhead who just makes innuendos.They’re soldiers, both of them, and more than that they’re goddamn _badasses_.

“Don’t know,” Tucker mutters. “ _Fuck_ , that hurts!” Kai had just tried to move his leg. She grits her teeth; it’s definitely broken, and she has no clue how to set it, and they don’t have anything they could possibly use as a crutch. She has _no idea_ how they’re supposed to carry him out of here, especially not with Caboose out cold. If Caboose was awake, this might be easier. She’d seen him destroy doors and crash through walls before, he could carry Tucker easy. She wonders if they’d done all this on purpose. Maybe they’d done this _just so_ , to make sure that they were all helpless. “They took our helmets.”

“I don’t think this is about us,” Simmons adds, sounding slightly more coherent now that he has something to focus on. “They didn’t--they didn’t _care._ ” He sounds vaguely offended by this. She can’t really blame him; it’s been awhile since they were just collateral damage for whatever grand conspiracy had fallen into their laps. Even when they _were_ collateral, at least they were usually _important_ collateral. Not the kind of collateral you lock in one room to succumb to injuries.

“Están buscando al mercenario insano que se ha estado escondiendo en nuestra base los fines de semana alternos,” Lopez drones. He somehow manages to sound even more irritated when he’s just a head. Poor guy, Kai thinks. _Giving_ head is fun, but she can’t imagine it’s very enjoyable to _be_ one. Especially when the rest of the body has so many advantages. “Están revisando los datos en los cascos para determinar si pueden encontrar dónde está.”

Kai scowls, mentally planning to see if she can get an oversized flyswatter to get rid of that guy next time he shows up. She’s willing to put up with a lot of bullshit, but if Locus’s awkward bullshit law-evasion means her family gets hurt...

Well, Kai’s not going to tolerate that. His ass is _grass_. She’d spank him, but he’s probably into that, he’s so self-flagellating.

Donut’s head snaps up, and he scrambles to his feet, away from Doc. “Guys, I hate to thrust some bad news on you, but it looks like they're about to surge through our backdoors!”

Kai curses and spins, raising her weapon. The rifle pulses reassuringly in her hands. “You guys stay back! Donut, c’mon!”

The two of them take their positions as the guards stumble in. They’re shouting commands, yelling about taking them down.

“We don’t need them alive!” one of them shouts. Kai shoots him first, seeing red.

She hates being treated like she’s... _unimportant_. And she hates seeing her friends, her _family_ being treated that way even more. They could at least _pretend_ to be upset that they had to do this. That the Reds and Blues aren’t just some sort of annoying footnote that they need to get rid of to get to the prize that they _really_ care about.

After that, things become a blur. There’s a lot of them; more than Kai would have thought they’d be able to keep in this tiny base. The doorway helps, making sure not too many of them can show up at a time. Kai’s just glad she brought a _lot_ of bullets, because she’s burning through them.

One of them gets close, but Kai body checks him, steps on his neck, shoots him, and keeps going. If they get past her and Donut, they get to the others. And that’s not going to happen. She’s not going to _let it_ happen.

Donut’s by her side, fighting just as hard. She can hear his heavy breathing through the radio as he spins around, throwing grenades, firing his pistols. Is it her imagination, or are the bad guys slowing down? She hopes so. Her arms are getting tired, and there’s so much blood that she feels sick.

Every now and then, the bad guys throw a grenade in. But Donut moves fast, always scooping them up and throwing them back out before anything bad can happen. Every time that happens, there’s a lot of screaming, and then it’s usually a long time before they try _that_ trick again. Kai tries to feel satisfied about that, but there’s not _time_ , not with everything else that’s going on.

She doesn’t dare turn around and look at the guys. None of the assholes have managed to hit her and Donut yet (at least not in any seriousness), but a few shots have gone wide. It could be all too easy for one of them to hit the guys.

But she can’t check on them. She can’t even _hear_ them over the gunshots, over the chaos, over the yelling.

At one point, she thinks she hears Dex calling her name, but she’s probably imagining it. The alarms in the base are blaring, and it’s fucking _awful_ , loud and obnoxious and ridiculous. Why can’t they turn that goddamn thing off?

Finally, _finally_ , they stop coming. _Finally_ , Kai can lower her gun, her heart still pounding in her ears. There are bodies. There are _so many_ bodies. Kai doesn’t want to even start counting them all, doesn’t want to have to look at them. Instead, she turns around to face the others, afraid of what she’s going to see.

They’re all okay, that’s the first thing she realizes. Or well, at least as okay as they were when Donut had blown open the door. But something is wrong, and she can’t figure out what it is for a few moments, as she stands there, letting her gun drop towards the floor. It feels so much heavier now than it had, and she wants so badly just to let it drop, to just collapse.

But she can’t do that, because this could be a trick. There could be more of them on their way. This could be just a break, for them to regather forces and to lure them into a false sense of security.

She tries to focus on the others, to see what it is that’s striking her as so wrong that it’s pushing aside the comfort that they’re okay. She keeps her gun in hand, just in case the bad guys try to take advantage of this, to rush them, to do _something_ suitably evil and dick-like.

It’s _awe_ , she realizes, after a moment of staring right back at them. There’s sheer _awe_ on their faces as they stare at her and Donut, as they look at them. Kai doesn’t know what to do with that. The moment hangs in the air, bizarre in ways that Kai doesn’t know how to classify as she stands there, her armor splattered in blood, still holding her gun, staring at her injured friends.

“Well,” Doc says, sounding faint. “I guess we don’t need Freelancers after all!”

Kai rolls her eyes. “ _Duh_ ,” she says. She wants to feel proud, wants to feel smug that she _showed them_ , but all she feels is tired, and happy that they’re all okay.

Donut laughs. “Oh, stop it, you’re making me rosy and perky!”

“That, was _awesome_ ,” Tucker says. He’s got the same voice that he got whenever Kai did something hot during Blood Gulch.

“ _Santa mierda. Ellos son competentes. ¿Cuando esto pasó_?”

“ _Siempre_ ,” Kai can’t help but smirk. There’s something warm and soft uncurling in her stomach; maybe it’s relief that they’re all okay, maybe it’s warmth at the praise, maybe it’s something else entirely. But there’s no time to get out the couch and fuck a therapist, because they’re _really_ got to try to get the others moving.

She kneels down to check on Sarge. He’s still okay, but his face is all screwed up and his breathing is faster, and Kai doesn’t know if that’s a good or a bad sign. “Doc!” she yells. “Is he gonna be okay?”

“How should I know?” he whines.

“You’re a doc, Doc!”

“I’m a _medic_!” Doc complains, but he puts Lopez’s head to one side, and awkwardly shuffles over, hissing in pain the whole time.

“I’m going to find an infirmary,” Kai decides, not liking how unsure Doc looks as he hovers over Sarge. “Donut, you stay with them.”

“Yes, ma’am!” Donut says, and Kai starts to take off, before she collides with Wash and Carolina as they enter the room, guns drawn.

“Oh, thank God,” Carolina says, and then she’s a blur of speed until she’s hovering over Sarge.

Kai wants to sag in relief, but Wash is there, holding her by the shoulders.

“Are you all right?” he asks. His voice is still that too-soft, too-ragged thing that it’s been ever since he got shot in the _goddamn throat_ , but it’s a comfort to hear, nevertheless. Also, the sexy rasp thing kind of works for him. “We got your message.”

She wants to scream at him for being late. She wants to demand what took him so long, wants to sob, because she’s surrounded by dead bodies, because if he’d have _been here_ , maybe she wouldn’t want to _be_ screaming and crying and generally being a mess on the floor.

But instead she grips his arms tightly and does her best to nod. “Yeah,” she says. “We handled it okay.” _Don’t throw up, don’t throw up, don’t throw up_.

Wash tugs her in for a hug, and she clings to him, doing her best to swallow back tears. Maybe she holds on a bit tighter than she should, but the adrenaline is fading away, leaving Kai with just the leftovers; the panic, the fear, the knowledge that there’s so many dead bodies and Sarge is still hurt, even as Carolina takes off her healing unit and slaps it on his chest.

Wash gives good hugs, all things considered. Those things being the fact that he’s awkward as hell, the fact that he’s so jumpy that he rarely hugs anyone, and the fact that he’s a cop. Sure, he’s a _former_ cop, but once a cop, always a cop.

“You did good,” Wash says. “I knew you could. Both of you,” he adds to Donut, who’s standing there, hovering over Sarge with the rest of Red Team.

Finally, Kai pulls away, still breathing heavily. “Of course we did good,” she snorts. “You Freelancers think you have to do _everything_ , but we managed fine without you for _ages_ before you showed up!”

“Right,” Wash drawls, and she wants to laugh, but instead she drags him over to check on Caboose and Tucker.

“Wash!” Tucker says, stirring slightly. He winces as the movement jostles his leg, and settles down again, but he’s still sitting upright, Caboose still curled against his shoulder, chin tucked against his chest. “You guys are okay!”

“They sent a team after us. Unfortunately for them, Grey had the whole place booby-trapped in case Carolina tried to escape,” Wash says. “It took us a while to get _out_ after that, though. So we missed Kai and Donut’s call for help. We came as fast as we could.”

“What were they after?” Carolina asks. There’s a tension in her voice, a fury. It’s _super hot_ , but it also kind of makes Kai scared, and she’s one of the _good guys_ here. She’d feel bad for whoever Carolina’s going to go after, when she finds out, but... well, they hurt the guys. And that’s just not acceptable. “Who _did this_?”

“El gobierno, por el amor de dios. Todos son corruptos, y quieren que Locus muera. Obviamente.”

“Locus?” Carolina demands, voice sharp. Of course she understands _that_ part. Why the fuck does no one ever learn Spanish? What century _is this_ , people? Get with the times!

“Nope!” Donut says. “People who _want_ Locus, and not for his chiseled abs and dreamy voice either!”

“You’ve seen his abs?” Kai asks, curious.

“Focus,” Carolina says, but there’s a laugh in her voice. Sarge must be doing okay, Kai thinks, slumping with relief. She brushes Caboose’s hair out of his eyes. His eyes flutter open, and he gives her a small, loopy grin.

“Sister!” He says. “You are here! Tucker said you would come and then he said hey-chicka-bump-bump and then Grif yelled at him and then I felt very sleepy and Tucker yelled at me and now you’re _here_!”

“Sure am,” Kai nods, grinning at him. “How are you feeling, Caboose?”

Caboose makes a face. “They broke my helmet,” he whines.

“We’ll get you a new one, Caboose,” Wash promises.

“Good,” Caboose mutters. “I _like_ that helmet.”

“We know,” Kai says, at the same time as Wash and Tucker. The three of them grin at each other.

“We need to get moving,” Carolina says. “I think Sarge is stable enough to move.” She gets to her feet, and Kai has never appreciated how _tall_ Carolina is before.

“How can we move them all?” Wash demands, sounding tired. “We’re going to have to take trips.”

“Then we’ll take trips,” Carolina says. “One of us stays here to guard them, two of us move them to the ship while one of us watches our backs, then one of us stays with the ship to guard them while the other two come back.”

“Three trips?” Kai says.

Carolina nods. There’s a grim determination coming from her, and Kai can’t help but appreciate it.

“I’ll stay with them here,” Kai volunteers. It’s definitely not because she wants to lean against the wall for a bit, definitely not because she’s not sure she can walk out into the hallway and see _more_ of what she and Donut have done, not just yet at least.

“Sounds good,” Carolina says. She and Wash move towards Caboose and Tucker. “We’ll take Sarge last,” she says. “He could use a little more time with the healing unit.”

“Treason!” Sarge coughs. “I’m perfectly--”

“Yes, Sarge, of course,” she says, picking up Caboose while Wash helps Tucker. Donut has picked up more pistols from the fallen guards, and grimly escorts them out. She’s never seen him so serious. He must have realized the same thing that Kai had, about the bodies in the hall.

The moment they’re gone, Kai sits down on the ground next to the Reds and Doc.

She tries to keep her breathing even and steady. She should move the bodies. At least all to one side or something, but the idea makes her stomach rebel. She doesn’t _want_ to look at them, to touch them, to see if any of them are actually alive and have to decide what to do with them. It had been so much easier when she could just shove them in a closet.

Suddenly, a warm hand falls on her shoulders, and Kai is pulled into a warm, familiar embrace. _Dex._  Simmons has taken his place, hovering over Sarge, he and Doc both pretending they’re not watching them. But they’re pretty obvious about it. But she’s _pretty sure_ Simmons is just watching to see if Dex is okay, so she doesn’t really mind. It’s kind of cute how much they worry about each other, sometimes.

She hugs him back, burying her face in his shoulder.

“You’re a fucking _badass_!” Dex says. “Holy _shit_ , Kai, that was _awesome_ , never do that again!”

“Then you don’t disappear on me, you _jerk_!” Kai snaps, but she doesn’t let go of him.

“Promises, promises,” he says. And Kai breathes deeply, and knows that everything is going to be okay.

**Author's Note:**

> You can find me on [tumblr](secretlystephaniebrown.tumblr.com/). And thanks again to ivorytrenchcoat!


End file.
